President Donald Trump on Sunday defended Pete Hegseth a day after NBC News reported that the Defense Secretary used his personal phone to send sensitive information about strikes in Yemen to an encrypted group chat that included his wife and brother.

“He’s doing a great job. Ask the Houthis how he’s doing. Everybody’s happy with him. We have the highest recruitment number I think we’ve had in 28 years,” Trump said Monday.

“It’s just fake news. Sounds like disgruntled employees. He was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people and that’s what he’s doing. You don’t always have friends when you do that,” he added.

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